Beazley on Python Generators, the Wolf, Bloomberg et al

April 18, 2008

So Matt has read Bloomberg on Bloomberg. I read it recently, looking for insight into how Bloomberg achieved platform style lock in a la Micrsoft, something I’ve written about before. Bloomberg does give an interesting view of how Reuters and Dow were the incumbents when he started out. He beat them by offering more than raw data. Early Bloomberg terminal offered analytics and historical data. Adding email, news and etrading increased the lock in of a platform that was already compelling for buy side traders by the early nineties. Now Bloomberg is the incumbent, charging monopoly rent. There will be some disruptive shift coming in the future that will unseat them, we just can’t see it yet. One thing we can be sure of now – it won’t be LiquidityHub !

I’m currently reading Jordan Belfort’s Wolf of Wall Street. If like me you enjoyed the outrageous antics in Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker, or Frank Partnoy’s FIASCO, you’ll love this one.